Mack – Random Thoughts: The Draft Process

Also at Mack's Mets:

 

Good morning.

 

It is my opinion that, no matter how you spin it, the Mets have been quite lucky to wind up with the results they achieve in both the 2019 and 2020 draft.

 

First, drafting is real hard. You have to first determine, in order, the players you would want on your team. In a normal year, this list could total 1,500 players.

(I'm not even going to try and explain when players you have coming up on the top of list are picked by another team.)

 

A lot of this information has already come in from the regional scouts you have in the field. Let’s say the region I live in. That could include Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, Charleston, Columbia (all in South Carolina) and Augusta Savannah, and Hinesville (all in Georgia).

 

The scout(s) you have on payroll check out daily  ALL the high schools, junior colleges, and colleges in that area. It will be that scout’s job to identify a ‘person of interest’. That scout will contact the home office and the player will be tagged as the first step that could lead to picking that player in the next draft.

 

A great scout also meets with the coach and discusses anyone else in that league they should be aware of. Those names are also sent to the home office and they are tagged as a 'person of interest' to be followed up on in the future.

 

Let’s say they are scouting a player on a Charleston high school team. A coach tells that scout that they should take a look at someone that players for a high school in both Beaufort and Orangeburg. He tags these two on his ‘person of interest’ list and watches the original player he was scouting on that night’s game. His plan is to go to Columbia and see another player on a college team. He checks the schedule and seeing that the team that player is playing for will be home for three straight games. He changes his plans only after the coach of the Orangeburg school confirms back to him that the new person in question will play the night the scout wants to see him (remember, that Orangeburg player might be a pitcher and your schedule may not fit his rotation schedule). 

Still think this is easy?

 

Good scouts leave their weekly schedule open on two or three days so they have room to add players like dominos.

 

Great scouts can sniff a potential star out and if that itch isn’t there, they drop this name from their list post haste. Think Clint Eastwood here.

 

Every Friday is saved for a top college starter you are following. The best always pitches on Friday and they always pitch again another top starter. One might not be eligible for the next draft, but you begin to fill in the pages of your next year’s hit list. The more years you scout, the more years you will follow a player and see them mature. You will see their body fill out and pop grow. And you will see pitchers add new pitchers and more velo.

 

You arrive early and seek out the head coach. You milk him for the most info you can get on the player you came to see, ask him to tell you two others players on the team you should watch, and mention anyone on the other team you should be scouting. Lastly, you ask them of key players in the region or in his division.

 

You then head to the stands and hang out with whatever other scouts have arrived. Pump them for the same answers you were looking from that coach to tell you. Most will tell you nothing, but you may get lucky with one or two. No one will steer you wrong here with a klunker. There is a scouting code that protects that.

 

If you are doing your job well, you should have scouted around nine scheduled players the first three weeks, six more you slipped in, and 10-15 names you need to follow up on. That could be 30 players and week four hasn’t even started.

 

Your goal is to follow 100-150 players over THEIR season. You will eventually move certain names from the first stage, ‘person of interest’ list to players on a new ‘targets players’ list. It could be anywhere between 1-150. And the length of the list is not the priority. Quality rules here and that is going to be what you are judged.

 

Technology allows you to Zoom with your handler at home office. You also will participate in a weekly Zoom with all members of the scouting management team and other field scouts in the field.

 

Additional people, called ‘crosscheckers’ will be sent in the field to follow members of your list. A crosschecker is a type of scout whose main function is to provide a second opinion on the reports filed by primarily-level scouts on players. Crosscheckers can be assigned a regional territory, or work at the national level.

 

During this time, members of the draft management team may join you, or branch out on their own, to contact high school seniors and underclass junior college players to let them know of your interest and begin to see if there is player interest to sign with your team.

 

Your last step is attending a series of meeting at home ship CitiField with your bosses, prior to the draft. It will be your job to state your final case regarding every player you targeted during the season.

 

At the same time, the process will continue to draw that prospect closer to your team and try to determine how much moolah it will take to sign him. There will be no specifics here since slot levels will adhere to most of them, but there will be the occasional JT Ginn that somebody will have get out of that kid how much money over slot will it take to sign him (this is where the Mets have done well in the past two drafts).

 

Still with me?

 

Add to this the horrible pay, the limited expenses that force you to eat fritos for dinner and stay at a Motel One.

 

And you’re fired if the team you works for drafts someone you ‘sold’ to them that turns out to either not sign or be a klunker.

 

Great job, huh?